THE HOBBIT NEWS

It was inevitable. We all knew this would happen one day, just surprised it took this long. There's an Avatar theme park in the works, Harry Potter Land is already open, Tron World is coming up, now it's time for Middle Earth. It has been announced (via EuroWeeklyNews) that a theme park is being built in Spain that will be called La Comarca, which roughly translates to The Shire, and it will be based on the universe and characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien. They already have six (!) live-action movie to choose from (between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies), plus a couple of Rankin/Bass animated features, and all of the books and endless artwork inspired by them. This could be so cool, but we're not sure what exactly it'll have.

"May the hair on your toes never fall out." Hurry – before the angry legal goons in Hollywood put their foot down and stamp out this fire! In all truth and honesty, I fully expected this (someone would re-cut it into one movie) to happen sooner or later, and I'm glad it was sooner. A J.R.R. Tolkien super-fan who goes by "tolkieneditor" has published a 4-hour re-edit (or "fan cut") of The Hobbit trilogy, with the conclusion still playing in theaters now. His new version has condensed the excess footage from Jackson's trilogy into one extended 4-hour presentation. It's not exactly "one" movie, and I'm sure we'll see someone make that eventually, but it is the first attempt at redoing The Hobbit as a single story–the way it should've been done.

Now that Peter Jackson is done with his overlong trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit, that means it's time for him to complain about how franchise driven Hollywood has become. That's right, the man who gave us not just one, but two trilogies based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien recently had an interview with Moviefone where he was asked about his desire to return to smaller films, and he said, "I'm absolutely happy to make smaller films. It's what I want to do…So we want to go back and make some New Zealand stories." But it's what he said next that is going leave you raising an eyebrow or rolling your eyes. Read on!

Now that you've seen it, what did you think?"Will you follow me, one last time?" Peter Jackson presents his final (supposedly) adventure in Middle Earth, the conclusion of The Hobbit with The Battle of the Five Armies, now playing in theaters. Martin Freeman returns as Bilbo, who must figure out what's next after making his way into the mountain and escaping Smaug the Dragon. Richard Armitage as Thorin takes center stage, along with Luke Evans as Bard, Lee Pace as Thranduil, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, and of course Ian McKellen as Gandalf. So how is it? Better than the other two? Does it live up to the Lord of the Rings movies? Is it even worth seeing in theaters or not? Once you've seen it, leave a comment with your thoughts on PJ's grand finale The Battle of the Five Armies.

It's all come down to this? After five epic-length movies and 13 years worth of anticipation, Peter Jackson delivers his final episode in the Middle Earth, cinematic mythos. At least for now. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is nothing but what that title suggests, a final, ultimate battle for riches and glory that puts a cap on Bilbo Baggins' journey to there and back again. At 144-minutes, it's the shortest film in the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit sagas and dispenses with any idea of story or narrative arc. The Battle of the Five Armies is all-out war with brief bouts of exposition. Is it too much of a good thing? Yes, somewhat.

It was late 2003 and I was still finishing high school. Although I had never read the books, each year I kept growing more fond of Middle Earth thanks to Peter Jackson's adaptations of Lord of the Rings. By 2003, I was a movie maniac, following websites non-stop for info about the Matrix trilogy (which also concluded in 2003), Terminator 3, Hulk, X2 and Kill Bill, not to mention the Star Wars prequels in the middle of their grand finale. But it was Return of the King, and its triumphant debut on December 17th, 2003, that won my heart. On the Tuesday before release, I participated in a global event known as "Trilogy Tuesday", one of the first times ever a trilogy of movies were billed back-to-back-to-back. It ended with the midnight show of Return of the King, in total over 12 hours spent in a theater. One of the best experiences of my life.

While there are marathons of The Hobbit trilogy happening around the country in some theaters today, the final installment, The Battle of the Five Armies, doesn't start playing until tomorrow evening. And to hype up the release, Mondo has come through with two new collectible prints for the first two chapters of the J.R.R. Tolkien film adaptations. Ken Taylor is responsible for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journeyand Nicolas Delort created one for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. If you're a huge Middle Earth fan, find out how you can try to get these prints to frame on your wall at home. Look below!

"The brave hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, now works at a paper company." Last night, the star of The Hobbit trilogy, Martin Freeman hosted "Saturday Night Live," and some kind of parody of Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth epic was inevitable. However, we didn't think it would also crossover with a spoof of Freeman's work on the original British version of "The Office." Complete with an awesome opening title sequence of the show that airs on the JRR network (get it?), this was one of the funniest sketches in an episode where Freeman felt like he belonged amongst the cast of live sketch comedians. Watch below now!

After posing for a photoshoot inspired by Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit, late night satirist and future inheritor of "The Late Show with David Letterman," Stephen Colbert, continued his love for all things J.R.R. Tolkien by interviewing the one and only Smaug the tyrannical, the dragon under the mountain. And this isn't just an interview with a puppet, but rather a fully animated version of the dragon, or at least as much as would fit in the small space of Colbert's studio. I wonder how much it cost to get this feature together, especially since Benedict Cumberbatch clearly recorded his voice for it. Watch!

All right, well, the trailer we posted over a month ago for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was supposed to be the final trailer, but now we promise this is actually the last trailer for the final installment of Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy. Much like the fanmade trailer for the entire journey Bilbo Baggins has taken, this one goes through some highlights of An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, leading to this climactic battle that will link The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings (though there's still some 50 years in between). Are you ready to go back to Middle-Earth #OneLastTime?

"Bye, bye, Bilbo!" There is no bigger J.R.R. Tolkien fan than Stephen Colbert. He hosted the Hall H panel for The Hobbit at Comic-Con this summer, and appears in small cameo roles in the recent three movies (not to mention he can out-trivia anyone). With the grand finale, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, arriving in theaters in just another week we're getting the last marketing push and this one takes the cake. Entertainment Weekly has made three different covers for their latest issue featuring Stephen Colbert in full make-up/costume as three characters: Bilbo, Legolas and Gandalf. These are perfect, Colbert gets my respect for doing this. I'm excited for this last movie, one final adventure in Middle Earth.

"I'm not the same hobbit I once was…" Though we've already featured an official retrospective trailer that looks at the entire Middle-Earth legacy that has spanned The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy adaptations, one fan decided to focus only on the journey of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman/Ian Holm). Los Angeles-based editor Joel Walden has crafted a trailer for The Hobbit: The Complete Journey, which treats the entire trilogy as a single epic film. Obviously, it's pretty heavy on footage from An Unexpected Journeyand The Desolation of Smaug, so we'd like to see an updated version once The Battle of the Five Armies is available on home video to make more footage available to throw in the mix. Watch below!

In just over a couple weeks, the final chapter of The Hobbit trilogy arrives in theaters with The Battle of the Five Armies (watch the final trailer for the film). And while this is being touted as the defining chapter of the Middle-Earth legend, one of the franchise's stars who has been in J.R.R. Tolkien's world brought to life on the big screen since The Fellowship of the Ring thinks that director Peter Jackson may return to this fantasy world. Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the wise wizard Gandalf the Grey, told BBC (via THR) that he doesn't necessarily think this film will be the end of Jackson's playtime in Middle-Earth. Read on!

While the music video for Billy Boyd's credits song for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies proved to be a touching retrospective look at both the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy (concluding next month), a legacy trailer has just debuted looking back at both of these long adventures across Middle-Earth. Even though the prequel trilogy hasn't lived up to the quality of Peter Jackson's original ambitious jaunt into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, there's no doubt that the filmmaker has achieved something massive and grand by giving fans the adaptations that most of them have always wanted. Watch!